Media piracy is when media is copied and distributed illegally or without permission from the copyright holder. While recent technological advances has made this action more accessible, it has already been going on for centuries.
Tracing the history of media piracy requires going back to 1440 and visiting the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg. It was around this time that he released an invention that would spread across the world and forever change the production of media: the movable type printing press.
This printing press caused some of the first recorded cases of piracy in history. Instead of hand-printing each individual copy of something, this invention allowed for pages to be produced more quickly and at a cheaper cost.
It also made it easier for people to copy items they had previously purchased and to share them more easily. This most often included sheet music and books, particularly the bible and religious texts.
The 1970s and onward acted as a catalyst for piracy. The advancing technology of this time, namely home videos and VHS tapes, allowed people to easily record and duplicate preexisting media.
This rapid growth of bootlegging only expanded with the invention of digital media. In terms of music, sites such as YouTube and Napster, and devices such as iPods, allowed people to download and stream their favorite songs. From here, it became easy to share the music, especially since downloaded music could be “burned” on CDs.
Streaming services now dominate the media industry. Shows, movies, music, books, etcetera can all be accessed at the price of a subscription. While this originally seemed like a revolutionary idea that would make media accessible without needing to pay for individual items, issues have arisen that contradict that very purpose.
Many find it difficult to find all the media they want to consume simply through streaming services. This may be due to the fact that a particular item a person wants access to is not available on one of their streaming services. It may also be because everything is spread so far across different platforms that multiple subscriptions are needed to access them.
Without accessible or affordable ways to access media, many are now resorting to piracy, which more often than not solves the issues that people have with streaming services. Eventually, this issue could lead to issues for streaming services and their income and subscriber numbers.